Category Archives: No salty snacks

Food seems to be in the news these days more than I remember, food born illnesses aside. It seems that all the things I have have are popular these days.

Apparently, a woman had her job threatened for eating Doritos at her desk. Her employer has a policy against eating at ones desk for fear that it would damage the computers. I haven’t heard that fear since the early 90’s. I think that’s a bit extreme but at the moment, I think I would risk my job for the taste of a Doritos.

This month seems like déjà vu. It is similar to March but not exactly the same. Before it was no liquids except water and now it’s no alcohol. Why punish myself two times with similar items? Easy, they’re two different schools of though.

Water allows you to flush out what the other liquids put in as it hydrates. Water intake increases and you feel more hydrated. The flip side to this was that the amount of flavors experienced during a mean was dramatically limited. Wine pairings were definitely out and so was my usual morning juice.

No alcohol limits a certain type of beverage but does allow other flavors through fluids. During No Water, I learned that drinks enhance the flavors of meals dramatically! Even sodas and juices make a difference. Next time you have dinner, try a different drink other than your usual. You’d be amazed at how different it is.

On a side note, first salty snack was Lay’s Plain Potato Chips. I would’ve went for something more flavorful but they were more convenient at the time. They did provide the right amount of salt to satisfy 31 days worth of craving.

You’ve been there before: Someone you know moves into a new house and they throw a House Warming. Everyone chips in and brings a few dishes to help the new home owner supply the meal. There’s your vegetarian dish just in case, the visibly-ruined desert that is still editable, a cheese/meat/veggie/cracker tray (honestly people why do you buy these things?) and of course the salty snacks.

Pretzels, chips, dip and cheese puffs, they’ve been invited just like you and they’re mingling in with the rest of the other food trying to blend in. The first stop is always the cooler which is either outside or down stairs. No sense walking around the party empty handed. This is the first reason for failure.

With a drink in one hand and a plate in the other, you think "I will just grab as much as I can now then come back." Big mistake. A hot dog or burger starts off the party on your plate. Soon it’s joined by some type of salad, usually something with a type of noodle in it. To balance it all out, you add a hot side dish and fill in the empty areas with some easy to grab items from the CMVC tray but there’s still some room left.

Looking for the next item to join your food party you stumble upon some type of dip. It looks good so you plop some on your plate. Second reason for failure. But you can’t eat dip without an edible utensil and that’s where the salty foods sneak in. Next thing you know, you’re eating a plate full of food and not thinking of what you just grabbed.

So what do you when you have a Chocolate Covered Pretzel problem?? And better yet, what the hell am I talking about? Well, if you have been following for the last couple months you’d know that this month there are No Salty Snacks and last month there were no Sweets. So what does that make a Chocolate Covered Pretzel?

Conventional knowledge (and a Google search) tells us that pretzel is a salty food but what makes it so? Is it because it is covered with salt? Is it no longer a salty food if it is an unsalted pretzel? And then what is the result when you cover a salted pretzel with chocolate, a sweet?

The CDC says we are eating too much salt and I’m not surprised. Salt is in everything for two reasons, it’s a preservative and it tastes good. If you’ve ever eaten at a restaurant chances are that you’ve noticed something was lacking salt. And chances are that you added salt to make it taste better.

Salt comes in all different types of flavors, garlic, sea, seasoned even bacon! But no matter how you flavor it, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s salt.

To play it safe, i won’t be eating them but it just goes to show how much we know about the things we eat. Subtleties such as this are often ignored when putting food into the mouth.